Archive for October, 2008

What are You Dressing Up as for Halloween? [Question Of The Day]

Friday, October 31st, 2008

So tonight’s the night, my friends: Halloween. You’ve been planning for weeks or you’re going to toss some half-assed costume together from stuff in the back of your closet, but either way, you’re dressing up as something. What is it? And is it… sexy? Me, I’m going as Zombie Jimmy Stewart. Not gadgety, I know, but I’m hoping it’ll go over well. So, what about you? Are you doing something really ambitious? Let’s hear about it! Pictures and video are greatly encouraged! And if you need ideas, hit the jump for the classic web video Girl’s Costume Warehouse.


Sony Trucks Literally Turn Around to Stop Circuit City Shipments [Circuit City]

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Circuit City took a major blow today, according to a reliable inside source, when Sony’s merchandise that was being delivered to nationwide Circuit City distribution centers was stopped in transit and ordered to return to Sony “among worries that Circuit City couldn’t pay for the shipments.” This development means that Circuit City is not getting any Sony products replenished until they are able to convince Sony that their credit line is reliable. And with as bad as things are looking for Circuit City at the moment, that day may never come.


Beer Chilling Exercise Bike Puts You On the Drunk Diet [Drink To Your Health]

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Don’t be fooled. Pedaling around on a bike that chills your beers probably won’t result in much weight loss. In fact, you may actually pack on a few as you enjoy the beechwood aged fruits of your labor. The bike has a heat pump attached to the pedals so the more you pedal the cooler the beer set inside the copper coil will get. It is just the incentive the lazy couch potato needs to get up and start moving. Next up, tackling the fresh air of the great outdoors. [PEGE via Treehugger via DVICE]


“I’m a PC” Kiosk Opens in front of Apple Store.

Friday, October 31st, 2008

imapckiosk.jpg

Clever marketing or sour grapes? Microsoft has rolled out the latest phase of its $300 million dollar marketing campaign, in the form of kiosks–at least one of which has been strategically parked directly outside an Apple store.

The kiosk lets Microsoft users record their own additions to the company’s “I’m a PC” campaign. How about, “I’m a PC and I was just going over to the H&M, I swear.”

Cheap Geek: Today’s Deals, 10/31/08

Friday, October 31st, 2008

samsung.jpg

Amazon has a sale every week for one day only, and that day is Friday. The site offers deals on everything from apparel to home and garden, but most importantly, it has deals on electronics. Here are a few from today’s sale.

1. Samsung NV4 8.1MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom. The camera was originally $279.95 but is on sale for 47 percent off at $149.

2. Coby DP-758 7-Inch Widescreen Digital Photo Frame, originally $79.99 but on sale for $47.99, saving you 40 percent.

Gizmodo’s Haunted Halloween Post [Thank Giz It's Friday]

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Welcome to Gizmodo’s Haunted Halloween Post. Turn of the lights and prepare to take a blood-curdling journey into the nether regions of animatronic hell. Unlike a traditional haunted house, there are no walls (except maybe the boundaries of your monitor), but each floor of this post is packed with pure evil. The story begins in in a creepy looking foyer.

The room is dark except for a dim, flickering red light on the wall next to an old looking elevator. You already feel a mixture of anxiety and excitement welling up in the pit of your stomach—and the name “Hellevator” isn’t doing much to calm your nerves. Despite your reservations, you and a few other brave souls muster up enough courage to step inside the lift.

[Hellevator]

Just when you were thinking “did someone just rip ass?”, the elevator comes to an abrupt and violent stop. Suddenly, the doors are thrown open and you are bathed in a blinding, pulsating light. Amidst the confusion, you realize that the corridor is spinning—disorienting you even further. And the walls are…lined with thousands of corpses.

[Scare Factory / Corridor of Corpses]

You decide that this is no place for a feeble nerd like yourself and you bolt across the metal walkway. But stiff legs and spinning walls make it difficult to travel in a straight line with any speed. Using the railing for support, you finally emerge into a room with a large altar.

[Scare Factory / Angel of Death]

A siren blares. Men in hazmat suits race past you in a panic. There is screaming in the background and the room is filling with smoke. It’s like the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Armegeddon. A man next to you suffers from the poison.

[Halloween Express / Vomit Barrel]

Zombies roam the streets.

[Scare Factory / Geriatric Walkers]

The world has become a barren and lawless place. Crazed criminals run through your group, followed by police with batons in hand. In order to regain control, justice must be swift and brutal.

[Fright Catalog / Jolt]

The guy in a white shirt and jeans next to you laughs. “Disaster Movie was scarier than this!” he exclaims. He has a point. That movie was pretty horrifying. But you think “God I wish that douche would shut the hell up. He has been bitching and moaning this whole…” Just then everything goes black. You jump as someone lets out a blood curdling scream right beside you. The light returns but the man in the white shirt has vanished. You dart quickly around a corner and start down a hallway that looks like the dilapidated wing of a hospital. A fluorescent light in the room to your right flickers to life. You gaze through the door window.

[Costume Find / Tortured]

Screw…this. You make a break for the door at the other end of the room as fast as your legs will take you. The door opens into the brisk October evening. You breathe a sigh of relief and look up into the night sky. Holy crap…a bright flashing light is approaching fast. Turning back would mean re-entering the building—and we know that is no longer an option. Paralyzed with fear you watch as the light approaches. Is…is that a UFO? You can hardly believe your eyes. Indeed, the aliens have sensed weakness in mankind following the chemical catastrophe. They have come to finish us off—and they have a big bag of probes with a picture of your ass on it.

[FHTC / UFO Prop]

By now you are completely frantic as you run screaming towards the exit. Once you pass through the gate back into civilization, you begin to collect yourself. After awhile, you feel ashamed at how poorly you handled the situation back there—running around like a little girl. Hell, you almost peed your pants a few times. Speaking of that, you really need to go. You’re still on edge a little, but you head back to the entrance to use the facilities. Hmm…no urinals. Ahh, no matter—you throw open a stall door.

[Monster-Tronics ]

And that is the last thing you remembered before hitting the floor.

Bonus: The top image was captured by closed circuit security cameras at Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace on December 19th 2003. The ghostly figure left everyone baffled:

“It’s not a joke, we haven’t manufactured it,” said Vikki Wood, a Hampton Court spokeswoman, when asked if the photo the palace released was a Christmas hoax. “We genuinely don’t know who it is or what it is.”

[CNN]

It seems to perfect to be genuine, but to this day the footage is unexplained. Check it out for yourself:


Nintendo DSi Blocks Pirated Flash Cards [Nintendo DSi]

Friday, October 31st, 2008

We pretty much figured that Nintendo had another reason for releasing the DSi other than just wanting to give us a prettier system like, say, wanting to stop rampant global piracy on the DS. Now that the DSi is out in Japan, the public has tested all of the flash card piracy devices and found the results to be very, very bad. None of them work.

R4 - Failed
EZ Flash V - Failed
CycloDS - Failed
G6 DS Real - Failed
M3 DS Real - Failed
Supercard DS One - Failed
iTouch DS - Failed
FCard - Failed
NCard - Failed
M3 DS Simply - Failed
U2DS - Failed

It’s possible that there’s a card not currently on that list, but from our quick glance, all the big boys in DS piracy are covered. [GBA Temp via GoNintendo]


Lightning Review: Fun Size 3 Musketeers Bars (Verdict: Not That Fun) [Review]

Friday, October 31st, 2008

The Gadget: Fun Sized 3 Musketeers chocolate bars. Available in 11 ounce bags of individually wrapped bars.

The Price: $3.39 for an 11 oz. package

The Verdict:

galleryPost(’musketeers’, 5, ‘3 Musketeers’);
Since when did small equal fun? The way I see it, the more candy there is, the more fun you’re having, so to call these things “fun sized” makes me think they’re trying to fool their customers.

But beyond that, the smaller size screws with the whipped chocolate to outer chocolate ratio. If you get a regular, “non fun” 3 Musketeers bar, the outer chocolate seems thinner and there’s a bit less of it. It’s a better setup, in my opinion.

But really, when you’re getting this stuff for free, you can’t really complain.


Circuit City, Bleeding to Death, Receives Takedown Warning from NYSE [Circuit City]

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Even more bad news for the beleaguered Circuit City: in addition to having Sony stop their shipments to the store, they’ve now been informed that because their stock price has averaged below $1 for the past 30 days on the NYSE, the stock is in danger of being delisted from the exchange. In a few days, their ticker symbol (CC) will be marked with the dreaded “.bc” indicator on the end, which means they’re not meeting NYSE standards. The company has ten business days to come up with a plan to raise their average stock price above $1 within the next six months or they could be delisted for good. Watch for CC’s proposal to officially move Black Friday to…next Friday. [CNN via CrunchGear]


The Week in iPhone Apps: To The Polls! [IPhone Apps]

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Wow. Four more days to go. The next time you pop open one of our lovely weekly app roundups, we will have a new man in the White House (knocking on wood hard here). I don’t know about you guys, but I’m a little on edge. This week, let’s have a look at the apps that will make you forget about gerrymandering, vote suppression, and how long you just waited in line and keep your eye on the prize.

VoteReport: This app ties in directly with the Twitter Vote Report project, which is aiming to keep track of the situation at polling locations nation wide on election day via Twitter to make sure all goes smoothly and no nastiness happens (Florida, we’re looking at you). You can send canned updates regarding the status of your polling place, write your own or record an audio message and join the crowdsourced goodness. It’s free.

Classics: After filing your report, you’ll need something to do while you wait in line—Classics is an e-book reader that comes with a limited library of public-domain old timers like Huck Finn, Alice in Wonderland, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, etc, but presents them beautifully—some even with illustrations. If you were planning on reading any of the books on its list soon (more are coming via updates) and are cool with e-readers, this is pretty neat. $3

PanoLab Pro: Now it’s time for a panorama of happy smiling voters filing out of the polls! If you liked the free version of panorama-generator PanoLab, the Pro version for $5 adds more features for making better panos—enhanced export settings at higher resolutsions, auto exposure adjustments for individual photos, etc.

EasyWriter: Useful on election day and beyond, EasyWriter is another free app that lets you write emails in landscape mode which does a few more tricks than the other free one, Firemail, like resizing your composition text with multitouch zoom. Plus, nicer icon. Free.

Fake Calls: Change of heart? “It’s Jobs! Oh, man! I gotta take this! [runs off]” - you get the idea. Free.

Labyrinth: And finally, having nothing to do with election day but adding an interesting twist to the ol’ tilt a marble through the hole game, a recent update to Labyrinth lets anyone create a custom level in a web browser and then download it to the game with a PIN code, a process demonstrated above. Excuse the music here—pretty cool feature though. Free/$7

This Week’s App Coverage on Giz:

Square Enix Making Final Fantasy Based iPhone Game

John McCain Finally Gets His Own iPhone App

Microsoft Office Documents Editing Coming to the iPhone

Google Earth for iPhone Puts Whole World in the Palm of Your Hand

Opera for iPhone Ready To Go, If Not For Apple’s App Store Policies

Apple Really Wants You to Rate Apps in iPhone 2.2

This list is in no way definitive. If you’ve spotted a great app that hit the store this week, give us a heads up or, better yet, your firsthand impressions in the comments. And for even more apps: see our previous weekly roundups here, and check out our original iPhone App Review Marathon. Have a good weekend everybody.